Practices – Morning, Part 3/5

– Prayer on awakeningWhen you wake up in the morning, the very first thing you must do, before anything else, is to give thanks to the Lord. The first words to pass your lips should be:

‘Thank you, Lord, for giving me life and health.Fill my heart with love, and give me the strength to do your will
so that all my actions may be in your name and for your glory.’

– Remembering your dreams
As soon as you have expressed your gratitude to heaven, you should try to remember your dreams. If you get into the habit of doing this, you will often find that while you were asleep you have been given a programme for the day ahead. But you have to do this at once, while the images of your dream are still vivid; if you delay you will very rarely be able to recall anything.

Sometimes our dreams come back to us during the course of the day, but it is better to try and remember them when we wake up in the morning.

– Getting out of bed
The next thing to do is to get up. If you are in the habit of lying in bed after you wake up, you are exposing yourself to considerable danger on the psychic plane: you will be tempted to linger in a twilight state, drifting in an astral fantasy world of sloth and sensuality which will sap your will-power and destroy your character, and you will be permanently crippled. The habit will make a sluggard of you, a prisoner of your imagination, bent on the pursuit of pleasure.

You must get out of bed forwards, never backwards, and put your right foot to the ground first. Details like this may seem unimportant but, in fact, each one is significant: each movement when you are getting up in the morning should be made consciously and correctly.

– Morning ablutions
Once you are up, the first thing to do is to wash. Before praying, before doing anything else, wash your hands and face, and be particularly careful not to touch your eyes before you have washed your hands.

The Cabbalah tells us that at night, when we are asleep, an unclean spirit attaches itself to our physical body. In the morning, when you wake, that spirit is still there; your hands and face are still under its influence. Before you do anything else, therefore, you must rid yourself of the fluidic layer of impurities still clinging to your hands and face. While you are washing, concentrate on the refreshing effect of the water on your skin, for this sensation will help to clarify your thoughts. Try to feel the sacredness of what you are doing, and say,

‘May my face shine with God’s love,’or,
‘As I wash my physical face, so may my spiritual face be washed.’Or still,
‘In the name of immortal, everlasting love,
in the name of immortal, everlasting wisdom,
in which we live and have our being,
may this water deliver me from all impurities.’